By Erica Elliott
If you’re capable of breathing, you know that we’re in End Times. The economy is in the toilet, and the value of the dollar is so low, people are using it for kindling in their fireplaces. The real estate market is in such a state that realtors are jumping to their deaths out of the windows of their open houses, and we’ve all heard the story about the couple in Pittsburg that is offering a refund to anyone who buys their house upon the couple’s death. It’s bad, it’s bad, it’s bad.

What can you do? Vote for me in 2008. Or Scooby Doo. Or Kermit the Frog. That’s right, the “It’s the Economy, Stupid” game gets played close to every major election, which would include every presidential election and every midterm election that could possibly change the make-up of Congress. Here are the rules: You and your friends are not in power. Convince everyone that things are bad, oh so bad. Then tell everyone that it’s the fault of the people in charge. Promise everyone that if they vote for the cool kids, things will get better. Lather, rinse, repeat – every election cycle.

Essentially, political candidates tell the public, “It’s been bad, I’ll make it better.” It’s how Bill Clinton won the presidency in ’92, it’s how the Republicans won back Congress in ’94 – This game is so played, it’s how Franklin Delano Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover in 1932 (remember the song “Happy Days Are Here Again?” Roosevelt’s campaign theme song.)

How do you do this if the economy isn’t actually bad (after all, FDR didn’t have much of a hard time proving the economy wasn’t doing too well under Hoover – Great Depression anyone?)? Do you unplug all the computers on Wall Street? Do you bribe Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Fed) to increase interest rates to 20 percent? Do you hold all of the Fortune 500 CEOs hostage and demand a ransom of $50 trillion be sent to a cover organization in Kuala Lumpur? No, there are much easier ways to affect the economy without having to spend a single dollar (it allegedly won’t buy you much anyway).

 Regardless of the actual economic situation, if you continually tell everyone that things are bad, eventually they start to believe it (think of the American public like a teenage girl with low self-esteem). When the public starts to believe things are bad, consumer confidence goes down. When consumer confidence goes down, people start to spend less money. According to the Mortgage Banker’s Association, consumer spending comprises 70% of the GDP. This “let me hoard all of my food for the long, cold winter ahead” mentality has a real and measurable effect on the economy. It’s gonna be a hard-candy Christmas, kids.

As people get scared, they stop spending money on luxuries and focus only on the necessities. That’s why people aren’t buying houses, and that’s why I have to stand in line for 20 minutes every morning to get my five-dollar coffee at Starbucks®. Wait. That can’t be right. In a bad economy, people don’t drink Starbucks® because they are saving money for more important things like bread. In a bad economy, people leave their SUVs strewn on the interstate because they cannot afford to buy gas. In a bad economy, people don’t even watch television, because they can’t afford basic cable – they read books. In a bad economy, people don’t buy iPods or iPhones, and they invest in sensible commodities instead of intangible products like Google (debuted in 2004 at $85 a share; currently trading at $739.82).

Before you buy into the Armageddon rhetoric that has been manufactured to supplement the current election cycle, ask yourself the following questions:

• In light of the “current economic conditions”, have people stopped driving SUVs/watching TV/consuming extremely overpriced coffee-style beverages?
• Are economic conditions so bad that you notice a dearth of Harvard MBAs that can’t find jobs because the Fortune 500s stopped hiring?
• Rather than hearing conversations that start with, “Did you see Dancing with the Stars last night?”, do you overhear more conversations in which people say, “The fourth time I read War & Peace just shed so much light on Tolstoy’s theme of the irrationality of human motives”?

If all else fails, just hold out until January 2009 – that’s when the newest occupants of the White House and Congress will be singing, “Happy Days Are Here Again.” In the meantime, you can actually do something to affect the economy. Remember all that talk about consumer confidence? You have the power to affect it. Get out there and start building it! Yes, buying five-dollar coffee is one way, but the best way is to contact your sphere of influence and tell them what’s really going on! In your Holiday letters to friends and relatives, tell them about the great deals they could get as investors in this wonderfully undervalued market!  This real estate market is like the quiet guy in high school – no one’s interested until the Head Cheerleader develops a crush on him – suddenly, everyone wants a piece. The Huntsville real estate market is a well-kept secret that you’d like to let people in on, so they can get the deals before the mad rush (read: BRAC).

If consumer spending is 70% of the GDP, and spending is down as a result of low consumer confidence, all we need is a little attitude adjustment to make a huge change. You can make this change happen!